People, papers and presentations

Rice graduate student Peter Owuor, freshman Sylvia Jung and graduate student Iyako Lawal won the design and engineering award in the #CleanSeas Innovation Challenge sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program and Think Beyond Plastic for their idea to turn egg whites from waste eggs into biodegradable plastic cups and plates. They were among four winners in separate tracks to present their work at the Sixth International Marine Debris Conference in San Diego this month. The teams receive accelerated support as they work to bring their products to fruition.

Robin Sickles, the Reginald Henry Hargrove Chair of Economics, is an editor of the recently released book “Productivity and Equality” (Springer, 336 pages, $179). The volume highlights state-of-the-art knowledge (including data analysis) of productivity, inequality and efficiency analysis in economics and showcases a collection of the best papers from the 2016 North American Productivity Workshop in Quebec City that Sickles helped organize.